Author Abby Gaines & The Inspiration for her The Earl’s Mistaken Bride & Book Giveaway
My guest today is author Abby Gaines who has just started writing for Love Inspired after writing for Superromance line and the successful Harlequin NASCAR series. Abby is offering a book giveaway and shares how her new romance reflects a Biblical story. Here’s Abby:
“When I read the Bible story of Rachel and Leah, I’m always struck by the romance of it – Jacob is so smitten with Rachel, he works for seven whole years in order to be allowed to marry her. Then his pa-in-law pulls a fast one, substituting Rachel’s sister Leah on the wedding night, and poor Jacob has to work another seven years for the privilege of marrying the woman he was promised in the first place. Ouch!
But the bigger ouch, surely, was experienced by Leah. Rachel was more beautiful, and Leah had “weak eyes.” And though Jacob stayed married to her, she had to share her husband with the sister he loved more. Poor Leah!
It was her story that inspired my new book The Earl’s Mistaken Bride. Marcus, Earl of Spenford, strikes a one-sided bargain with God: he’ll marry a good Christian girl if God will heal his dying mother. Where better to look for his wife, than to his local parson, Reverend Somerton, who has five unmarried daughters!
Marcus meets beautiful, lively Amanda Somerton and chooses her as his bride. But through a combination of circumstances – which I won’t reveal here! – he ends up married to plain, quiet Constance. Unlike the Bible days, he can’t have two wives…he’s stuck with Constance.
Constance has always loved Marcus, and must face the fact that he preferred her sister, and would never have chosen her. The parallels with Leah are obvious! What’s more, Marcus has a bad case of pride, and doesn’t consider her worthy of the position of his Countess. Constance decides to fight for her man and for her marriage, and to teach proud Marcus what really matters. As he sees it, she “declares war on the pride of Spenford”… all that remains to be seen is who will win!
We don’t know a lot more about Leah, except that her rivalry with Rachel goes on for years. Luckily, Constance doesn’t have that battle on her hands. But she shares with Leah the determination to overcome being rejected. Knowing that her Heavenly Father always loves and accepts her gives Constance the assurance that this is a battle worth fighting.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on Leah and her story. One commenter will win a copy of The Earl’s Mistaken Bride, open to readers everywhere. You can read an excerpt of the book, and see more about The Parson’s Daughters series at www.abbygaines.com–Abby
I’ve always felt sorry for Leah too, Abby. Talk about a slam to the self-esteem. But I’ve also always wondered if she secretly loved Jacob too. That’s the only reason that I can come up for her to go along with her father’s plan. So what do the rest of you glean from Leah’s story? Please share to be entered into the book drawing.–Lyn
